Drilling a hole and advancing casing or liner as the hole is drilled and reamed are known as described in U.S. patent and published applications: U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,845,722; 6,196,336; 6,419,033; 2003/0056991; 2003/0106688; U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,348,095; 6,371,203; 2002/0040787; 2002/0189863; 2004/0011534; 2005/6854533; 2007/0144784; 2007/0175665; 2007/0267221; 2008/0135289; 2009/0090508 and 2010/7784552.
Some of the art also has a focus on hole orientation while drilling such as US Publication 2009/0056938 and 2005/0126825. Casing drilling with expansion is discussed in US Publication 2007/7287603. Other prior art discusses drilling a wellbore and forming a monobore, such as US Publication 2006/0196663; 2011/0114336; 2010/0032167 and 2008/7383889. Drilling and cementing is discussed in UP Publication 2009/0107675. Expanding and cementing is covered in US Publication 2012/0061097. Using folded tubulars and reforming them in a wellbore coupled with further expansion as a possibility is discussed in 2011/0265941.
The present invention seeks to make drilling and completion more efficient by enabling in some embodiments the drilling and reaming of a borehole while advancing casing, liner or a patch with the further ability to expand and cement in either order. The expansion device can be run top down or bottom up when using a swage that can be built to multiple diameters for creating a bottom bell on the tubular advanced with the bottom hole assembly (BHA), expand the tubular and fixate the tubular to an existing tubular through which the expanded tubular has just been run. Cementing can be accomplished before or after expansion and expansion can be accomplished with an inflatable instead of a swage. A monobore can be created with an expansion tool that adapts to several diameters. The BHA can be driven by a fluid motor such as a Moineau pump and supported by rigid or coiled tubing. The tubular can be solid, with single or multiple walls or slotted 101. The swage can be advanced with a hydraulic anchor/stroker tool alone or with force delivered through the running string or combinations of the two. Steering tools can be incorporated in the BHA as well as sensors to determine the location of the string being advanced. Drilling pressure at the bit can be controlled with adjustable chokes associated with the tubular being drilled in. The swage can be used as a tubular support during running in and drilling. A folded liner can be advanced and then made round with a swage or by application of internal pressure. The string can be rotated during cementing to distribute cement with the downhole motor to do the rotation if coiled tubing is used for the running string. Expansion can also be accomplished with roller expanders, conical swages or internal pressure in the string. Expansion direction can be top down or bottom up. Cementing can occur bottom up or top down and can occur before or after expansion. Expansion can also occur at one end or another first and then proceed from the opposite end or with a middle section expanded first followed by opposed ends. Top down expansion can be aided by adding string weight by setting down weight at the surface. Those skilled in the art will better appreciate these and other aspects of the present invention from a review of the detailed description of the preferred embodiment and the associated drawings while recognizing that the full scope of the invention is to be found in the appended claims.